The University of Michigan Law School's Innocence Clinic is working to change the justice system one case at a time.

The clinic won its first victory in July when Wayne County Judge Patricia Fresard granted DeShawn and Marvin Reed a new trial in the 2000 shooting of Shannon Gholston. The Reeds spent eight years behind bars before being released.

The Reeds are among the lucky ones, clinic co-director David Moran said. Many of the people who file applications with the Innocence Clinic might well be innocent, but nothing can be done on their behalf, Moran said.

"A lot of mistakes get made that never get fixed," Moran said. 

Michigan Court Rules require new evidence or proof of ineffective assistance of legal counsel to merit an appeal. If the courts have already heard evidence that could exonerate a convict, oftentimes there's no legal recourse.

Since its founding in January, the Innocence Clinic has received more than 4,000 applications. Moran had long been interested in innocence clinics since Cooley Law School founded its own Innocence Project in 2001. But whereas the Cooley clinic handles cases with DNA evidence, the U-M clinic is the only one in Michigan that tackles non-DNA cases.

When U-M Innocence Clinic founder Bridget McCormack called and offered Moran the chance to leave his assistant deanship at Wayne State to help run the clinic, he took the opportunity.

Moran said he couldn't pass up the challenge of freeing innocent men and women on the basis of procedural errors rather than the "magic bullet" of DNA evidence.

"The percentage of cases where there's DNA evidence is very low," Moran said, citing burglaries and white-collar crimes as two instances where DNA evidence that could prove innocence rarely exists. 

But, Moran said, U-M and Cooley's innocence clinics are complementary operations. Sometimes when Cooley takes interest in a case and is unable to find DNA evidence, it passes the matter onto McCormack and Moran.

"For the most part, it's sweat that runs the clinic," McCormack said. 

After convicts or their supporters file the Innocence Clinic's 19-page application, student participants and affiliated law firms - including Bodman Firm, Dykema, Foley Lardner and global powerhouse Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe - sift the pile for worthy cases.

From there, some cases merit further review and follow-up by clinic students. Currently, the Innocence Clinic serves six clients, and about 40 to 50 cases are in the further review stage.

In August, the clinic scored a step toward its second victory. In 2002, Lorinda Swain was convicted in Calhoun County of four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

After Swain's then-13 year old adoptive son was accused of sexually abusing a young cousin, the boy said he'd been abused as a youth by Swain. Swain was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison.

Swain's adoptive son testified Swain molested him while his younger brother waited outside for the school bus to show up. When the bus came, he said, the younger brother would knock on the door, and the boys would get on board.

But the Innocence Clinic's students were able to track down the bus driver and neighbors, who refuted the accusations that the younger boy served as a “lookout” on school days.

In November 2007, the boy, now an adult, recanted his testimony in a notarized statement. But Calhoun County Prosecutor Susan Mladenoff plans to appeal the decision. Swain has been released from prison, pending the results of the new trial, and must wear a tether.

"We can't have a victory party for that one quite yet," Moran said. 

And on Monday, the Innocence Clinic filed a motion in the case of Karl Vinson, who's been jailed since Jan. 3, 1986, for the rape of a 9-year old Detroit girl. He was sentenced to 10 to 50 years in prison.

The Innocence Clinic held a press conference Wednesday to explain Vinson's case. McCormack and Moran spoke, along with students involved in the clinic and Karl's brother, Robert.

Vinson was eligible for parole in 1994. But because he maintains his innocence, he hasn't been released. Moran said parole boards prefer when convicts own up to what they've been convicted for - not when they deny it.

Moran said Vinson "is, to a scientific certainty, innocent," and the evidence on hand in 1986 proved it. He called the case a "scientific trainwreck," and attributed Vinson's conviction to misunderstood and misrepresented evidence involving Vinson's blood type.

"Since February 2009, independent testing by a Lake Superior State University chemistry professor and by NMS Labs in Pennsylvania has confirmed that it is scientifically impossible for Vinson to have committed the crime," the clinic's release said.

The Innocence Clinic is pushing Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to join in the filing. McCormack said evidence that points to Vinson's innocence also means the real rapist could still be out in the streets.

If the Innocence Clinic has one goal beyond its immediate focus of freeing wrongfully convicted men and women, it's to get all participants in the judicial system - judges, prosecutors, and even juries - to take greater care in weighing the plausibility of evidence and testimony that can spell the difference between innocence and guilt.

"We hope to add an element of healthy skepticism in the minds of prosecutors and juries," Moran said.

James David Dickson reports on human interest stories for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com, or followed on Twitter at Twitter.com/JamesDDickson.